Police Believe 'Someone Is Helping' Escaped Kankakee Convict
Updated: 04/02/15 - 11:23 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- More than a day after a convicted killer escaped from a Kankakee County jail, authorities said they suspect someone is helping hide him from police.
Kamron Taylor, 23, broke out of the Jerome Combs Detention Center around 3 a.m. Wednesday, after overpowering a jail guard and donning his uniform. He managed to get through three locked doors in the jail before stealing the guard's personal vehicle, which was found abandoned several hours later. Taylor has yet to be found.
"Someone is helping him, concealing him," Kankakee County Sheriff Timothy Bukowski said Thursday morning. "We will prosecute those people to the full extent of the law, if they conceal Mr. Taylor."
Bukowski said police have searched more than 47 homes, and other areas, and have contacted known associates of Taylor in an effort to find him.
Investigators believe someone likely picked him up after he ditched the guard's SUV, or met him somewhere nearby.
Police have said Taylor is armed and extremely dangerous. Authorities believe he has the guard's service weapon, which likely was in the officer's vehicle at the time of the escape.
Bukowski said Taylor somehow escaped his cell, and hid in a pod at the jail, then ambushed a correctional officer conducting a routine check of the cells.
After choking and beating the guard into unconsciousness, Taylor allegedly stole his keys, donned his uniform, and left the jail, walking with such poise that jail guards mistook him for one of their colleagues, and buzzed him through three locked doors. Taylor and the guard he attacked are both black males with similar builds.
"It looks, right now, speculation on my part is somebody didn't do their job properly," Bukowski said.
Once outside, Taylor stole the officer's personal vehicle – which police believe contained his service weapon – and sped away. The guard was found in a shower about 20 minutes after Taylor escaped, and was taken to a Kankakee hospital.
"His condition is improving," Bukowski said of the officer. He said the guard's family has asked that no other details of his condition be made public.
Police found the guard's stolen SUV parked in a driveway on Lincoln Avenue mid-morning on Wednesday, after Gretchen Jackson called police about a vehicle blocking her driveway.
Officers swarmed the area in search of Taylor, but he has not yet been located.
While the search continues, a separate investigation was being conducted into how Taylor managed to escape. Kankakee County investigators were questioning Taylor's cellmate about what he knew about how Taylor managed to get out of the cell. A couple dozen other inmates in the same pod also are being questioned; some have been more helpful than others.
Bukowski also said there are cameras all over the jail, so investigators were reviewing footage to determine exactly what happened.
"We're reviewing videotape from inside the facility, and we'll break that down to try to identify how he got out of the cell, and how he avoided the headcounts," he said. "What was wrong with our system that allowed him to do this? The Jerome Combs Detention Center opened in 2005. This is the first escape from the facility."
Taylor had attempted to escape custody twice before, including in February, when he tried to flee a Kankakee County courtroom after a jury convicted him of the June 2013 murder of 21-year-old Nelson Williams Jr. However, in both previous attempts, Taylor was quickly subdued.
Anyone who sees him should call 911. Authorities were offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to Taylor's arrest.
An update on the injured guard's condition was not available Thursday morning. His family has asked that no information on his condition be released to the media.
Police also reported a 15-year-old girl went missing Wednesday morning and might have been with Taylor. She was later found safe and questioned by police before being released. Police said her case was unrelated to Taylor, and the original information that she might have been with him was not credible.